Immemorial continuance is presumed from regular usage 25. Uninterrupted. At least in point of Right. 38. Peaceable and acquiesced in. 48. Reasonable; i. e., not unreasonable. Thus, even if there could be in Virginia (as there cannot), a valid custom or usage operating as an exception to the general rules of the common law, a custom or usage for a flour inspector, who by statute is to receive a specified compensation in money, to take to his own use the flour drawn from the barrel in the process of inspection, called the draft-flour, as an additional compensation or perquisite, would be bad, as unreasonble, unjust, and contrary to law. (Delaplane v. Cren shaw, 15 Grat. 457). 58. Certain. Id certum est, quod certum reddi potest. 68. Compulsory. 78. Consistent with other customs. 2. The Legality of Customs in Virginia. Customs, as local laws, cannot exist in Virginia, because, when our ancestors came hither in 1607, they brought with them the universal common law, but no particular custom; and so every local custom now alleged to exist must have originated since that period, and therefore within the historic memory of man. (Harris v. Carson, 7 Leigh, 632; Mason v. Moyers, 2 Rob. 606; Delaplane v. Crenshaw, 15 Grat. 457.) Let it be observed that the doctrine just stated does by no means exclude the effect of usage or custom in proving or modifying contracts, either express or implied. Contracts are generally made with more or less reference to existing custom or usage, and although, where the agreement is in writing, it may not be altered by proof of any such custom, save where the terms are ambiguous, yet having due regard to that rule of evidence, usage and custom are powerful auxiliaries to help us to the meaning of the parties. (Governor for, &c. v. Withers, 5 Grat. 24; Delaplane v. Crenshaw, 15 Grat. 457; Ragland & Co. v. Butler, 18 Grat. 336-7.) 3. Contrast between Custom and Prescription. Custom is a local law; prescription a source of private title to property. Both depend on immemorial continuance. In both, twenty years adverse, honest, uninterrupted continuance is proof of immemorial duration. + + Custom as a local law cannot exist in Virginia, for the reason stated on the preceding page. Prescription may, because there is no historic date for the introduction of property, as there is for the introduction of law. (Coalter v. Hunter, 4 Rand. 38; Nichols v. Aylor, 7 Leigh, 546; 3 Kent's Com. 441; 1 Lom. Dig 673.) 3. Allowance of Particular Customs; W. C. 1. Customs (being in derogation of the common law) must be construed strictly. 1 Bl. Com. 78,-'9. 2. Customs must submit to the King's Prerogative. 1 Bl. Com. 79. 3. Particular Laws; Let us observe under this head, (1), What particular laws are admitted as part of the common law; (2), The several courts wherein they are used; and (3), The restraints upon their employment; W. C. 1. What particular laws are admitted as part of the lex non scripta. The particular laws which have been partially adopted. as part of the common law, but with a number of cautious restrictions, are the Roman or civil law, and the canon or ecclesiastical law. (1 Bl. Com. 79 & seq.) W. C. 1o. The Roman or Civil Law. 1 Bl. Com. 80, 81. W. C. 1. The sources whence the Roman law was compiled. The sources whence the Roman law was compiled may be enumerated as follows; namely, (1). The regal constitutions of their ancient kings; (3). The laws enacted by the senate or people; (5). The responsa prudentum, or opinions of learned lawyers; and (6). The imperial decrees, or constitutions of successive Emperors. 1 Bl. Com. 80, 81. 2. The parts of which the Roman law (the Corpus Juris civilis) consists; Wherein of 18. The Institutes of Justinian. An elementary treatise for the use of beginners, compiled by Tribonian, a great jurist of the time, under the order of the Emperor Justinian, about A. D. 533. 28. The Pandects, or Digest of Justinian. A digest, in 50 books, of the general doctrines of the Roman law, compiled with great labor and success, by Tribonian, under the order of Justinian, about A. D. 533. It contains the opinions of the most eminent jurists of the Roman world, digested with admirable. system, upon all subjects connected with the municipal law of the empire. Within less than a century after its completion, it disappeared, and was lost to the world for nearly 600 years, when a copy of it was casually found at Amalfi, in Italy, about A. D. 1130. 38. Code of Justinian. A new collection of imperial enactments, or constitutions, compiled by Tribonian, about A. D. 533. 48. Novels or New Constitutions. Being a Supplement to the Code, containing new decrees of successive Emperors. These four compose the Corpus Juris civilis. 3. Popular Expositions of Roman or Civil Law; Wherein of 18. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall, &c, ch 44. [28. Browne's Civil and Admiralty Law, Vol. I. 35. Taylor's Civil Law,-p. 1 to 25. 4. Kent's Com's, Vol. I, p. 515. 5. Cooper's Justinian. 2o. The Canon Law. The canon law embraces the whole body of Roman Ecclesiastical Law. (1 Bl. Com. 82, & seq.) Let us observe, (1), Whence the Canon law was originally compiled; and (2), The depositaries of the Canon law; W. C. 1. Whence the Canon Law was compiled originally. From opinions of ancient Latin Fathers,-the Decrees of General Councils, and the Decretal Epistles, and Bulls of the Papal See. 2. Depositaries of the Canon Law; W. C. 18. The Concordia discordantium Canonum, or Decretum Gratiani, A. D. 1151 (3 books). 2. The Decretalia Gregonii Noni, A. D. 1230 (5 books). 38. The Sextus Decretalium, A. D. 1298 (1 book). 48. The Clementine Constitutions, A. D. 1317. These six constitute the Corpus Juris Canonici. 78. Legatine Constitutions. The legatine constitutions are the constitutions from time to time enacted in the English National Synods, Temp. Henry III, A. D. 1220 to 1268, under Otho and Othobon, Legates from Gregory IX, and Clement IV. 8. Provincial Constitutions. 1 The provincial constitutions embrace the decrees of Provincial Synods held under divers Archbishops of Canterbury, from Henry III to Henry VIII. By 25 Henry VIII, it was enacted that there should be a review of the canon law; and until it was made that all canons, constitutions, ordinances, and synodals provincial, then made and not repugnant to the law of the land, should be in force. And on this statute (no such review having ever been made) now depends the authority of the canon law in England. (1 Bl. Com. 83.) 24. The several Species of Courts wherein (under restrictions) W. C. 1o. The Courts Christian, or Ecclesiastical Courts. 2o. The Military Courts. 3. The Courts of Admiralty. 4. The Courts of the two Universities. The civil and canon laws are used in Virginia in 1. Causes Testamentary and Matrimonial; 2. The Military Courts-that is, Courts Martial; and 3. The Courts of Admiralty. 34. The restraints in the employment of the Civil and Canon Laws; W. C. 1o. The Courts of Common Law superintend and control the Courts which use the Civil and Canon Laws. 2o. The Common Law reserves to itself the exposition of all Acts of Parliament which concern those Courts, or their jurisdiction. 3o. An appeal lies from these Courts to the Crown, in the last resort. 2. The lex scripta, or Statute Law. Let us observe here, (1), How statutes are enacted; (2), The different kinds of statutes; (3), The rule of construction of statutes at common law; and (4), The rules for the construction of statutes prescribed in Virginia; W. C. 1. How Statutes are enacted. The mode of enacting statutes may be seen from 1 Bl. Com. 181, & seq.; Bac. Abr. Court of Parliament (E.); Id. Statute. The student is invited to read attentively the passage of Blackstone here cited, from page 181 to 185. The ordinary mode of passing laws in Congress (and the forms in the State legislatures are very similar) is briefly thus, One day's notice of a motion for leave to bring in a bill, in cases of a general nature, is required; every bill must have three readings before it is passed, and these readings must be on different days; and no bill can be committed and amended until it has been twice read. In the House of Representatives, bills, after being twice read, are committed to a committee of the whole house, when a chairman is appointed by the speaker to preside over the committee; the speaker leaves the chair and occupies the place of an ordinary member. When a bill has passed one house it is transmitted to the other, and goes through a similar form, though in the Senate there is less formality, and bills are often committed to a select committee chosen by ballot. If a bill be altered or amended in the house to which it is transmitted, it is then returned to the house in which it originated; and if the two houses cannot agree, they appoint each a committee to confer on the subject. When a bill is engrossed, and has received the sanction of both houses, it is sent to the President for his approval. If he approves the bill, he signs it. If he does not, he returns it within ten days (Sundays excepted), with his objections, to that house in which it originated, which enters the objections at large on its journal, and proceeds to reconsider it. If then two-thirds of that house agree to the bill, it is sent, with the objections, to the other house, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it becomes a law. (Bac. Abr. Statute; Const. U. S. Art. I, § 7.) 2b. The different kinds of Statutes; W. C. 1o. The different kinds of Statutes, in respect to Subject Matter; Wherein of 1d. Public Statutes. Such as regard, or affect materially, the whole or a great part of the community, which must be noticed by the courts ex officio, without being prored. (1 St. Ev. 231; Bac. Abr. Stat. (F.); Pot. Dwar. Stat 52, & seq.) 2d. Private Statutes. Being such as concern only a particular species, thing or person, of which the judges will not take notice ex officio. (1 Bl Com. 86, and n (21); Pot. Dwar. Stat. 52, & seq.); W. C. 1o. Doctrine at Common Law, as to private Statutes. Must be both pleaded and proved. Such statutes in England are frequently used. (Pot. Dwar. Stats. 53, and n (1).) 2. Doctrine by Statute, in Virginia, as to private acts; W.C. 1. Pleading and proof of private acts. Need not be pleaded specially, but must be proved. (V. 18. By means of a copy certified by the officer charged |